The 1981 meeting of the American Section of the International Society for Heart Research (ISHR) will be held at the University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, June 18-20, 1981. Before the meeting, there will be a satellite symposium on the Biology of Myocardial Hypertrophy and Failure, scheduled for June 15-17 at the same site. Funds are requested to defray travel, registration, and housing expenses for speakers at the symposium and meeting. The American Section of the ISHR is a young organization which is developing an annual meeting devoted to recent developments in basic and clinical research on the heart. Twenty-three three hour sessions are planned for the 1981 meeting. Many sessions will be organized as workshops, with a balance between new experimental work and discussions of controversial techniques and approaches. Others will be organized as are scientific sessions at Gordon Research Conferences. Speakers will be invited, and session chairpersons will be distinguished scientists in the area to be discussed. Poster sessions will be available for free presentations. The Symposium will consist of invited 20 minute presentations by about 40 speakers covering the latest and most important work on hypertrophy and failure. Speakers have been chosen so that differing views on important problem areas will be thoroughly aired. In both the symposium and the meeting, the atmosphere will be relaxed and informal, and ample time will be reserved for discussion during the meeting and for informal discussions after the day's sessions. We believe these meetings can serve as a prototype for an annual general meeting and specialty symposium on heart which will fill an important need.